Drug Discovery News
is,
described in the simplest and most basic way, a newspaper. Diving a little
deeper, it is the job of our editors and writers to monitor trends and
developments that impact the business of drug discovery in some way. In the
past year, many of these trends and developments have involved the field of
stem cell research. Therefore, it is no coincidence that in response to a spike
in stem cell-related news, we here at ddn
have dedicated a
great deal of ink to covering news in this growing research
area this year. From collaborations between the world's top pharmas and
biotechnology
companies, to groundbreaking preclinical research, to the
development of new tools to be used in stem cell research labs, ddn has become a
veritable "Situation
Room" for stem cells.

This trend in our coverage inspired us to launch a summer
feature
series dedicated exclusively to the topic of stem cells. The three-part
series began in our July issue, in which we examined the complex history of
stem cell research and the promise it
holds for improving human health. We also
described how the evolution of this still-young area of science has yet to
resolve serious moral and ethical
concerns with regard to human embryonic stem
cell research (hESC)—issues that have divided various levels of government in
their capacity to help fund
promising research projects. Finally, we provided
readers with a comparative view of how stem cell research efforts outside of
the United States are
conducted, and how various foreign governments approach
some of the issues we're dealing with on home soil.

In the second part of our
series, which ran in our August
issue, we decided to tackle those very issues in a direct way. Assembling a
panel of experts—Dr. Theresa Deisher,
founder, CEO and chief scientific officer
of AVM
Biotechnology (and one of the plaintiffs in the Sherley v. Sebelius case); Dr. Verna McErlane, director of
commercial operations at Sistemic Ltd.; and Dr. Mark Pittenger, CEO and chief
scientific
officer of Pearl Lifescience Partners LLC—we asked
hard-hitting
questions about hESC research. The participants in our roundtable discussion
offered diverse, but very insightful, comments on the moral
and scientific
implications of conducting hESC research.

Finally, this month, we are concluding this series with
a
look at who the major commercial players are in the stem cell market—a sort of
"Who's Who of Stem Cell Research." Selecting the companies we chose
to profile
in this story proved to be a daunting task, as the field is growing by the day.
Thus, we teamed up with the market research firm Frost &
Sullivan to make
our final selections. While our final list is by no means conclusive, we think
it's a good depiction of the depth and breadth of stem
cell research being
performed. We also take a close look at some of the United States' top academic
centers that are performing work in this area.

Now that summer is over, and we are awakening from our stem
cell coma, we'll be taking a closer look at other
trends, such as what's new in
cell biology, as well as providing you with guides to the final conferences of
the year, such as the Society for Neuroscience's annual show in October. However,
we haven't
written the last word on stem cells. We will continue to report on
the latest business news in this area and are planning another multi-part
series in
2012. To view all of our stem cell series, as well as our other
special reports, visit www.drugdiscoverynews.com/specialreports.